Roy Cokayne
The award of phase 2 of the Western Aqueduct project, the single largest bulk water supply pipeline project ever undertaken by eThekwini Water and Sanitation, has been thrown into disarray by an urgent high court interdict obtained by one of the unsuccessful bidders.
At the official signing of the R864m contract on Monday, Andrew Copley, the project manager for the municipality’s Western Aqueduct project, said the project was finally going ahead, with the tender officially awarded to the Esorfranki-Cycad Pipelines joint venture.
He said construction was expected to begin next month and should take at least 30 months.
Copley said commencement of the contract had been delayed after three unsuccessful bidders had lodged appeals or objections against the eThekwini council’s announcement in June 2010 of its intention to award the contract to Esorfranki and Cycad Pipelines.
The objections were lodged by Sanyati Holdings, which had submitted the lowest bid, Wilson Bayly Holmes-Ovcon (WBHO), the second-lowest bidder, and Group Five.
The bid by Esorfranki was the third lowest. It was R165m higher than Sanyati’s bid and R144m more expensive than the bid submitted by WBHO.
Copley said the bid by the Esorfranki-Cycad Pipelines joint venture had been assessed by the city council as being the most advantageous offer of the seven tenders received for this project.
However, Malcolm Lobban, the chief executive of listed construction and engineering company Sanyati, denied that the objectors had been delaying the contract.
Lobban said the tender results had come out in February last year and the eThekwini municipality had asked three times for the validity of the tenders to be extended.
The tender was awarded to Esorfranki in December and the objections were lodged in January, but the municipality “has been dragging its heels again”, he said.
Lobban said the firm had applied for the interdict because the city had reneged on an undertaking that Sanyati would have seven days, after it was provided with the reasons for the decisions taken during the internal review process, to consider whether to accept the findings or take further action.
Sanyati became aware of the media conference and contract signing ceremony and the municipality’s intent to renege on this agreement.
Lobban said it had served papers on Friday on the eThekwini municipality, its attorneys and Esorfranki for the application to the KwaZulu-Natal High Court for an urgent interdict, which was heard on Monday and granted to Sanyati.
He claimed that the interdict not only prevented the signing of the contract but also that no more work could be done on it until the completion of Sanyati’s review application.
He said Sanyati had seven days to file its papers for an application to review eThekwini’s internal process to consider the objections.
When approached for comment, eThekwini municipal manager Michael Sutcliffe was surprised that Sanyati had been granted an interdict, adding that all the documents for the contract had been signed “over the weekend”.
Sutcliffe said the municipality had conducted a thorough appeal and was confident in that process but the matter was before the court. He was unsure of the legal implications.
Bernie Krone, the chief executive of Esorfranki, was also unaware that an interdict had been granted to Sanyati, but stressed his company had not defended the action nor asked for anything from the courts related to this contract.